You may not have realized, but today is Christmas. For baseball fans, anyway. Baseball Prospectus just published its PECOTA projections, as well as the anticipated team records. I’ll have a lot more on this later, but some highlights for you in the meantime.

BP has the Red Sox finishing 2nd. Not to the Yankees, the Rays. They have the empire finishing third. Projected records for the clubs: Tampa 96-66, Boston 95-67, and New York 93-69. Not that I relish the idea of finishing 2nd, but given that they don’t have another AL club cracking 90 wins, that would mean a playoff berth.

And before you scoff at these rankings, remember that BP predicted the Rays success in 2008. Yeah. Before they were good.

How’d We Get There?

As expected, BP has the Red Sox staff and defense much improved, giving up the second fewest runs in the league (737 runs to the Rays 729). But the offense is no slouch either. BP expects a cumulative .275/.356/.448 line, good enough for 882 runs. The only clubs in the AL projected to best that number are the Yankees (917), the Rays (885), and the Rangers (883).

Add it up and you have what the front office is clearly shooting for: a club that keeps the score down, but can put enough runs on the board to win consistently. Here’s hoping they’re right.

Player Highlights

Notable aspects of the projections for our roster.

THE LINEUP:

Ellsbury: BP sees more power in ’10; from .415 last season to .431.

Pedroia: .866 projected OPS for the little guy; the 18 HRs would be a career high.

Youkilis: 24 HR, .500 SLG, but a .387 OBP that would be his lowest since ’06.

Ortiz: Mild rebound anticipated: .238/.332/.462 to .265/.369/.486

Drew: Declines in OBP and SLG, from an ’09 OPS of .914 to .813

Beltre: They see 19 HR and a .773 OPS from the 3B – Lowell was 17/.811

Cameron: 18 HR in 515 AB, only 8 SB

Martinez: it’s really nice to forecast a .798 OPS from the catching spot

Scutaro: his anticipated .753 OPS is almost a hundred point improvement over ’09’s .655, and then there’s the defense

Comments: the offense is deeper than you’d think, particularly when you consider Hall (.244/.310/.413) and Hermida (.269/.352/.455) off the bench. For the Lowrie fans, PECOTA is not optimistic: .253/.333/.397. If that holds, we’ll be glad Scutaro’s on board.

THE ROTATION (note the IP):

Beckett: 195 IP, 170K, 49B, 3.52 ERA

Lester: 178 IP, 140K, 62BB, 3.66 ERA

Lackey: 199 IP, 144K, 52BB, 3.55 ERA

Matsuzaka: 107 IP, 92K, 52BB, 4.35 ERA

Buchholz: 164 IP, 141K, 62BB, 3.71 ERA

Wakefield: 97 IP, 55K, 38BB, 4.63 ERA

Comments: who wouldn’t like that rotation? I’m particularly pleased at the projections for Buch. If those hold up, we’ll be very glad that Cafardo, Mazz and co aren’t in charge, because he’d be throwing for another club. It would appear, also, that PECOTA is anticipating that we’ll make liberal use of spot starters in Wake and Bowden, who they project for 24 starts between them.

THE BULLPEN:

Papelbon: slightly better WHIP, higher ERA – HR rate up as well

Okajima: 3.41 ERA, 19BB/46K in 55 IP

Delcarmen: 3.64 with an unpleasant 1.3 WHIP

Ramirez: 3.55, with peripherals similar to MDC’s otherwise

Bard: kinda scary, 4.23 ERA, 1.48 WHIP and a poor 49/36 K/BB ratio

Comments: If there’s one area we might prioritize for help – barring a trade for Cabrera or Gonzalez, of course – it’d be here. Maybe one of Bonser, Atchison, Castro, Bowden et al pan out, but PECOTA doesn’t think so.